Successful online Autumn Meeting

Europe |

70 people from Eurobitume member companies, invited guests and the Eurobitume team attended our recent online Autumn meeting.

 

 

 

 

After the initial member company representatives-only session, in which budgets for 2021 were approved, the meeting continued and was open to all contacts from our 28 member companies.

The agenda included:

  • Presentations from the HSE, Technical and Public Relations and Communications Committees and their Task Forces (TFs). A report by the Safe Handling Sub-Committee was included within the HSE Committee report
  • A summary of the 2020 Member Survey results • A status update regarding Eurobitume’s LCI report
  • A progress report on the work of the Bitumen Sustainability Steering Group and its TFs
  • A summary of relevant activities undertaken by the Asphalt Institute (AI) and the AI/Eurobitume Leadership Team
  • An overview of Eurobitume’s advocacy activities in 2020 and 2021 covering:
    • E&E Congress 2021
    • Eurobitume events

Highlights from the updates and reports

HSE Committee
On behalf of HSE Committee Chair Simon Pritchard (Puma Bitumen), Eurobitume Senior Technical Advisor Mike Southern advised that both TF Hydrogen Sulphide and TF Mastic Asphalt had met their objectives and will soon be closed. 

 

Simon Pritchard
HSE Committee Chair		Mike Southern
Eurobitume Senior Technical Advisor

 

 

 A Memorandum of Understanding has been agreed between Eurobitume and the Energy Institute (EI), previously known as the Institute of Petroleum, for future revisions of their ‘Code of Safe Practice – Bitumen Safety Code’ document. Future editions will be jointly EI and Eurobitume branded.

 Bruno Piguel - Safe Handling Sub-Committee Chair

On behalf of Safe Handling Sub-Committee Chair Bruno Piguel (Shell), Mike also reported that the recently-launched Safety Incidents reporting has received a very encouraging level of responses from members for the first three quarters of 2020.

Technical Committee
Committee Chair Vicente Perez Mena (Cepsa) spoke about the Committee’s contribution to the European Commission´s review of the Construction Products Regulations. He also highlighted TF Test Methods’ involvement with the revision of test standards and the work of TF Specifications and FT Data Collection on the revision of the product standard for PmB, prEN 14023.

Vicente Perez Mena - Technical Committee Chair

PRC Committee

Johanna Andréasson - PRC Committee Chair

Highlights of the 2020 activities report presented by PRC Committee Chair Johanna Andréasson (Nynas) were the completion and upload of a Spanish version of the Eurobitume website; creating visual brand guidelines; producing various documents for the Technical and HSE Committees; defining Eurobitume communications Target Audiences; and managing the on-going publication of web and social media news items and content.

Bitumen Sustainability Steering Group (BSSG)
Chair Carl Robertus (Nynas) provided an overview of BSSG’s activities and a report on their work on the Climate Change and Circularity work stream. Good progress is being made to develop a ’story’ about bitumen and sustainability that can be referenced in future communication activities. 

Carl Robertus – BSSG Chair

This was supplemented by detailed reports from two TF Chairs: Frank Beer (Shell) for TF Secondary Materials used in Bitumen, and Laurent Porot (Kraton) for TF Product Life Cycle Aspects. We also see a lot of excellent progress made in the two TFs and deliverables from the longer-running TF Secondary Materials, including three internal member use guidance documents on the use of crumb rubber, plastics and REOB in bitumen.

Member Survey
2020 Eurobitume Director General Siobhan McKelvey presented highlights from the recently-conducted Member Survey:

  • Overall results again showed a high level of member satisfaction
  • HSE and Technical Material remain the top two deliverables of value to members. Regulatory Influence ranked in the top three for the first time, while E&E Congress activities and Committee Involvement remain in the top five of activities offering highest value to members
  • Communication to Politicians and Policy Makers remains the top area identified for future development
  • Educational Material for External Use was second – this was the first time it appeared in the top three areas for future development The focus on general public increased in 2020.
  • General Meetings remain the top activity for gaining member involvement

Asphalt Institute (AI) report by AI President Pete Grass, followed by a joint report on AI-Eurobitume Leadership Team activities:
Eurobitume President Frédérique Cointe reminded participants of the AI-Eurobitume Leadership Team’s structure and reviewed the common work done by both organisations under the theme of sustainability, specifically plastic in bitumen and the relationship with Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW). Pete Grass continued the joint presentation with a review of health studies and working together with one voice at key industry events.

Eurobitume President Frédérique Cointe

In her closing remarks, Eurobitume President Frédérique Cointe (ExxonMobil) recognised everyone’s hard work behind the scenes during these exceptional times to continue with the activities and tasks provided by Eurobitume for its members.

She added that the priorities going forward remain: focus on Sustainability; the E&E Congress and exploring new opportunities to provide education and training - with the seminar on Bitumen Safety being a great example of developing our experience to deliver in an online format.

The meeting closed with confirmation of the details for next year’s Eurobitume Spring and Autumn meetings:

  • Spring Meeting 2021: 29th–30th April in Brussels
    • Thursday 29th: AGM followed by dinner
    • Friday 30th: Seminar - ending at lunch
  • Autumn Meeting 2021: 14th–15th October, Online

 

 

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